Friday, December 29, 2000
Port Aransas, TX - Dec 29
The main event our final day in Riviera was to take a half-day wildlife tour at King Ranch in Kingsville, about 22 miles north. This had been described as a poor man's version of the private tours for a lot less money. Boy! Were we lucky -- we were the only people on the tour and got to go with the head naturalist. It doesn't get much more "private" than that. We saw over 60 species of birds. The ten "new" ones for us were Stilt Sandpiper, Common Yellowthroat, Least Grebe, Long-billed Thrasher, Great Kiskadee, Olive Sparrow, American Pipit, Canvasback, Anhinga & White-tailed Hawk. We saw each of these quite well and were able to note the distinguishing features. Some are south Texas "specialties" so we feel fortunate to seen them. We also saw White-tailed deer, Coyote, Alligator, Javalina, Bobcat & an Armadillo. The Armadillo was standing on it's hind legs with the sun highlighting the folds of skin and was a really special sight. The King Ranch is still a working ranch and there are other types of tours and dinners offered there, also. To complete the wonderful day, we stopped for pizza afterwards and then hit the Wal-Mart before returning home.Wednesday, 12/20 we left Riviera and arrived in Port Aransas, our "home" for a couple of months. Our "target" departure date is currently 2/27. We got a lovely site with a decent view. We are a short walk across the dunes from the most lovely beach. We have been walking on it every chance that we get. It is numbered every tenth of a mile, so you can plan your walks & increase each time. The weather has been much cooler than usual, but is so much better than most parts of the country that we won't complain & be laughed at. It hasn't gotten cold enough to worry about frozen pipes at least.
We can take a free trolley & ride to town to do errands, sightsee, or even visit the local recycling center. The trolley goes to the ferry landing & out on the beach in 4 or 5 places, so it's quite an enjoyable & scenic ride.
We had a pleasant Christmas dinner in the rec center. It was catered and the standard turkey dinner with trimmings. We only ate trimmings and were still quite full. It was fun to be with a group, altho we think the Escapee groups are more welcoming. In the evening we played bridge with a couple we had met earlier at their motorhome.
The Saturday before Christmas we drove into Corpus Christi to see the local Tuba Christmas concert. This was something we had attended often in Denver, so it gave a little familiarity to our first Christmas away from everything that we have grown used to. Afterwards we went to a nearby art center to look at a display of quilts. We had a lovely drive along the waterfront & enjoyed looking at the lovely mansions there.
We will not have any problem keeping amused while here. There are more birding areas around than we will have time to visit. Walking on the beach will take numerous hours -- and we hope to have friends visiting occasionally. Todd & Diane, friends from Boulder, were visiting relatives in Houston and took the long drive down here for a few hours' visit. It was wonderful to see them.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 4:42 PM 
